All posts tagged ‘Snow White’

Sofia is the newest Disney Princess. But she is a little different because she is the first preschool-age princess. She will be debuting in a Disney Junior Channel movie, Sofia the First, on this Sunday at 7 pm.

Many little girls, including my four-year-old daughter, love Disney Princesses. My daughter’s favorite princess is Snow White, but she is very excited to see Sofia the First because this is a princess who is a kid like her. I’m already planning on letting her stay up past her bedtime so she can watch it when it airs. I’m not sure why Disney decided to air Sofia the First at a time that is past many preschoolers’ bedtime. At least they will be airing it several more times, so kids who go to bed early will be able to see it.

Sofia becomes a princess after her mom marries King Ronald II. The movie will show how she deals with the adjustment of becoming a princess as well as being part of a new family that includes two step-sisters. There will be some cameos from other Disney movies with the fairies from Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella showing up to help Sofia along the way.

Sofia the First will air Sunday, November 18th at 7:00 ET/PT on the Disney Junior Channel. You can learn more about Sofia at the Disney Junior website.

Kris Bordessa is loving the fact that her son is enmeshed in costume making. His Halloween appearance as Bane is progressing nicely, with the mask complete and the vest in the works. (He has, however, not begun lifting weights.) The fact that her son needs merely occasional guidance from her instead of full-on design frees Kris up to do things like make kim chee and chase the chickens out of her garden.

This weekend Dakster Sullivan will be attending a future trooper party (aka, baby shower) for one of her friends. He’s super excited to become a dad and she couldn’t be happier for him and his wife. The only question left is, what should the little one’s first costume be?

Chaos Mandy is looking forward to starting her celebration of Halloween early. She will be going treat or tricking with her daughter and their church on Sunday. Both she and her daughter will be dressed as the fairest princess of them all, Snow White.

Laura talked about fracking on Huff Po Live, along with a Shell Oil exec and a climate change denier. She admitted in print that she tends to host strangely amusing parties. And now she’s planning another game of Logic Shrink event before the election, because a living room packed with happily yelling players stirs her reasonable soul. Just another eccentric week.

Kelly Knox is happy to be in her home state of Texas this week. She’ll be venturing to the Austin Comic Con this weekend, where she plans to get a glimpse of Patrick Stewart and the rest of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation up close and personal. This may result in fainting due to sheer awesomeness, but Kelly hopes to stay conscious.

Judy Berna spent the week celebrating her youngest child’s 12th birthday, trying not to let it make her feel old. Since her house is also occupied by three other children between the ages of 16 and 20, she’s having trouble letting the littlest guy grow up. The distraction of a great GeekDad review of her new book helped a lot. She’s also very excited about the post she did announcing a revolutionary new design in prosthetic legs, created by her very own prosthetist.

Rebecca Angel is recovering from last weekend with four concerts (various kids performing in). And now getting ready for the next two weekends of Halloween parties and events. Remember to join in the Munchkin Halloween fun!

Kristen Rutherford is spending quite a bit of time in the Winter Woods this week with her daughter, what with Secret of the Wings finally out on Blu-ray. She just wants to let everyone know that if you wear toddler size wings for too long, you can lose some feeling in your upper arms. But she is committed to playing Periwinkle to her daughter’s Tinker Bell when they dance around the kitchen. Look for her review of the film this week!

It seems like after ever major convention there is a post that appears on the internet that makes fun of cosplayers. I’m not sure why people feel the need to do this. But I do know why I love cosplaying and why I’ll continue to do it, even if I end up being made fun of on the internet.

My love of costumes go way back to when I was a child. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, partly because of being able to dress up in costumes. As I grew up, I discovered anime conventions. As I started to attend these cons, my love of costumes resurfaced. It is always so fun to put on a costume and pretend to be a famous character. My favorite costumes at the anime conventions were the ones from the Final Fantasy games. I even had a Summoner Yuna costume that is one of my only costumes I still have from my anime days.

I’m not the best at sewing, but I don’t let that stop me. For some of my costumes, like my Kaylee costume from the pilot of Firefly, I was able to just find the clothing items I needed. When I wanted to do Kaylee’s dress from the Firefly episode, Shindig, I had more of a challenge. But did I manage to come up with a plan to make this costume. I’ve worn it for several years now and it’s my favorite costume.

The vast majority of the feedback that I’ve gotten on my costumes is positive. I received a lot of positive comments on my Shindig dress recently at Dragon*Con. It made me happy to know that other people enjoyed seeing it.

I also cosplayed as a Disney Princess this year at Dragon*Con. I was Snow White because that was what my daughter wanted me to cosplay as when we marched in the parade. It was amazing to see small kids’ reactions to me. Their eyes would get wide as I waved at them in the parade. Those kids’ smiles made me feel like a real princess.

I generally talk to people in my geek groups about cosplay. But there are also several websites online, like cosplay.com, where you can connect with other cosplayers. This is a place where you can talk about costumes with people who love them as much as you do.

If you want to cosplay, I say go for it and ignore the bullies. It doesn’t matter if you have the best costume or look just like that character. It just matters that you are having a good time.

Last night I broke a rule of mine. I have watched the entire season of ABC’s Once Upon A Time on Hulu, days, often weeks after the episodes originally aired. Last night I dug out the bunny ears and the eight year old television, and watched the show with the rest of the country, commercials and all.

It was hard not to. When Henry walked in on Emma and that poisonous pastry last week, you knew that he was going to eat it. What you didn’t know, was how he was going to be revived. He’s a child so how could he possibly have true love, who could kiss him? From the second the show opened last night, we were on a roller coaster of a fairy tale journey. I half expected to have to wait until the end of the episode to see if Emma would believe or not, but it happened so quickly and I’m glad it did. The revelation that the Queen had Maleficent, as the dragon, imprisoned underneath that small town in Maine was without a doubt one of the highlights of the season. That Emma, who had only believed for about ten minutes, now had to slay that dragon was just beautiful. Continue Reading “Once Upon A Time: A Happy Ending?” »

Movie talk this week has been all about The Hunger Games, but we’re just a few days away from a spectacular display of on-screen costuming: Mirror Mirror. Continuing the entertainment industry’s recent fascination with fairy tales (Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Huntsman…), Mirror Mirror is a live-action comedy/fantasy telling of the Snow White story, featuring Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen. The movie also includes Nathan Lane, Sean Bean, and Armie Hammer, as well as Lily Collins as Snow White.

But the real star of this show is the costuming, created by Eiko Ishioka, Tony nominee (M. Butterfly) and Oscar winner (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). She led the creation of more than 400 costumes for Mirror Mirror, as well as the acquisition and altering of another 600. The spectacular handmade gowns that Snow White and the Evil Queen wear required as much as 35 yards of fabric. The Evil Queen’s massive wedding gown weighs more than 60 pounds and caused Julia Roberts to pull a thigh muscle when turning too quickly in it! Unfortunately, Ishioka won’t see them on the big screen, as she died of pancreatic cancer in January after undergoing chemotherapy during the making of the film.

The main characters’ costumes were built in New York’s Tricorne Costumes, Jennifer Love Costumes, Carelli Costumes and Eric Winterling Costumes, while the rest of the outfits were created in Ishioka’s Montreal shop by local costumers.

When I was a kid the whole princess thing was filed under “Boring and Irrelevant Things,” along with macroeconomics, upholstery, and Congressional subcommittee hearings.

And why shouldn’t it have been filed there? The only Disney princesses available at that time were Snow White and Cinderella, and two more boring characters had never sashayed across the screen, to my mind. They made me want to shove my popcorn down the back of my shirt just to see what would happen. Would it crunch when I sat back? Would my brother still eat it afterward?

I don’t remember any pressure to catch the princess boat either. I suppose it helped that I had two brothers and my mom wasn’t the girly type. No, there just wasn’t much social support for princesses in my life, but plenty for geeks. Thirty-five years later I am now blogging on GeekMom, not PrincessMom. Thankfully.

And so I greet Disney’s decision to abandon princess stories with a truckload of high-spirited indifference. Hooray! Whatever!

When Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement recently, I had occasion to pull out the “Boring and Irrelevant Things” file and revisit the princess entry. This young woman, Kate, is about to become a real-life princess. Perhaps the life of a real princess won’t be so bad? I considered the evidence.

According to my exclusive and unimpeachable sources (People Magazine and Us Weekly), Kate will enjoy endless perks: ginormous royal estates, crazy whiz-bang bling, more servants than she can count, and so on.

So far, my internal response is: meh. Wouldn’t all that get very old very quickly? Didn’t we learn from Princess Diana that if the Prince is being a jerk, no jewelry makes up for it? Also, having servants is to me like having root canal. Weirdly, I once found myself living for a few weeks alone in a large house in Senegal that came complete with a maid, a cook, a gardener and a guard. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. I hated having things “done” for me, and just wished we could all sit down for a beer together. Not happening.

Sources also reveal that Kate will give up much. Once a princess, she basically can’t make a move without the Queen’s blessing. Every part of her life will be scripted, arranged, and either supported or pointedly not supported by the crown (c.f. Diana again.) She’ll have endless mandatory public appearances where she has to schmooze, look fabulous, and care about things. Add to that the paparazzi and the endless public speculation about scandal, weight gain, and wardrobe, and … well… you’ve got my personal vision of hell. In my view, Kate is strolling, with excellent posture and a dazzling smile, straight into a gilded cage (c.f. Diana yet again.)

I wonder what her internal monologue is. Did she want to wear that feather hat, above? Does she dread becoming a princess? Welcome it? Is she putting up with the princess part because William is such a mensch? Or is she just pretending to love William so she can be the princess? Yes, dear reader, it took that long for me to come upon that last idea, which perhaps you’ve been yelling at the screen for several paragraphs now. I guess I’m just that geeky.

So after my reconsideration of princessing, I think I’ll keep it filed where it is. Congratulations to Kate Middleton, and not-that-there’s-anything-wrong-with-that, but I’m happy to miss this boat.

I’m just relieved that Prince William decided against proposing to me. I would have had to break his heart, poor thing.